"'The best couturiers, hairdressers, home designers and cooks are men. I suspect that, were it biologically possible, men would make better mothers.’" - Ida Alexa Ross Wylie, ‘The Little Woman’ 1945.

***

Someone on my hair angsting: "maybe your hair is in good condition then:D
maybe it's just like the supermodels who think they are too fat
and pretty actresses who think they are too ugly"

Someone else on a snide remark I made about a quote on someone's file: "close reading is getting many creative interpretations from u"

Information from a source on [at least the old] SAJC: "the only good thing about Chapel was having cute councillors up on stage. Speaking of councillors, do you know that all SAJC councillors have to be "confirmed" at St. Andrew's cathedral, and so I guess that rules out having non-christian councillors. Head of the student council had to be an Anglician, though there was this year the Head was a SJI (hence catholic) boy."
Isn't that illegal? Religious discrimination...

***

Apparently we now have Halal hairdye. Oh well, I suppose after Halal ice I shouldn't be surprised anymore.

***

"Perhaps we can avoid the absurd if we devote ourselves to providing only for the basic needs of everyone. There is a great deal of misery in the world, and many of us could easily spend our lives trying to eradicate it - wiping out starvation, disease and torture.

Such aims do indeed seem to give life a meaning that is hard to question. But while they are certainly worthy and perhaps imperative goals, they cannot eliminate the problem. Granted, one advantage of living in a world as bad as this one is that it offers the opportunity for many activities whose importance can't be questioned. But how could the main point of human life be the elimination of evil? Misery, deprivation, and injustice prevent people from pursuing the positive goods which life is assumed to make possible. If all such goods were pointless and the only thing that really mattered was the elimination of misery, that really would be absurd. The same could be said of the idea that helping others is the only thing that really gives meaning to life. If no one's life has any meaning in itself, how can it acquire meaning through devotion to the meaningless lives of others?"

- The View From Nowhere, Thomas Nagel

***

I went down to what is known (affectionately or otherwise) to many of its students as Boon Lay Polytechnic for a focus group. Interestingly, from the small sample size I obtained, the SACSALs there seem less hiao than in The Premier Institution of Social Engineering, though they are equally annoying. Also the most normal-seeming (ie the most abnormal-seeming, since now it is normal to be abnormal - take the dying of hair, for instance. If you have black hair, you are abnormal) University students I've seen are from the NTU School of Communication and Information (aka Mass Comm). Perhaps, in the isolated environment that is NTU, cut off from the rest of the world, a sub-culture has evolved. Or maybe I need to visit the University of Gymnastics one day to reduce my sampling error so I can apply the Central Limit Theorem (you know I'm becoming loopy when I start making nonsensical statistical references in my writing - blame it on my USP 'Writing' module).

It was also very interesting because I was the only non-NTU Mass Comm student at the table. So since the $10 incentive for going for a focus group apparently comes from the students themselves, it seems that the money just gets recirculated in their closed economy (until outsiders like me come in to siphon some out).

***

Apparently the banner the Muslim society put up at their bazaar, according to someone, said: "TOWARDS A MORE GOD-CONSCIOUS SOCIETY". Bah.

My sister always complains that she sees a lot of ass cracks when she comes to NUS, but somehow I never see them. Maybe it's because I'm not looking out for them.

We saw a video which included a clip of a tiger eating a peacock. Other people seemed quite agitated but I was one of the few who was laughing. Ah well.


Quotes:

[On price fixing] The CEO who proposed it was fined, and promised not to do it again *laughs from audience*

[Me: Question: What do you learn in 'Biodiversity'? He can't answer the question.] Neither can I.

The bad thing is when I talk about sexual selection it's not a very interesting or erotic topic... but we have some videos of animals doing it, to wake you up.

[On the tiffin girl of the day coming in with food for many people] It's like food supply here. I'm also hungry.

[On the Prisoners' Dilemma] If it's only for prison people then it's not that interesting.

[On Vampire Bats overfeeding] Basically they pee out all the serum, and once they have reached critical size or critical weight - [To someone eating salad with faux bacon bits made of soy protein] how's lunch coming along over there? Nothing red [inside], I hope.

Tit for tit (tat)

[On a journal article] When you read the paper, what's the hidden message? To endlessly confuse everybody?

Billy Gates. What has he been doing lately? Besides writing a lot of crappy code.

[Professor: Would you want to call something altruistic that's harmful to you but helps others?] That's just stupid.

[On teaching altruism] No one wants to sit down and talk to a eight year old child and say that you should be good to your neighbor because the benefits outweight the costs... you don't want to start explaining the dictator game and the ultimatum game to young kids.

The more attractive the peacock, the more it gets to pro- [Other student: Mate. Mate. Mate.]

[Student on differences between males and females: Size] Size of what? *laughs from audience*

[On differences between males and females] Hair loss.

Everytime you walk around campus you can see a lot of differences between males and females.

We don't have the time to see the vidoes now. *sounds of dismay* If you can come up with the 2 main factors [affecting sexual selection] within 5 minutes, I'll show you the videos.

Many a times you read the textbook. (time)

You're probably born around this time - 1973. [Student: You're 10 years early] You're born in 1983? I'm a bit dated... I'm ancient.

Singaporeans abrought (abroad)

per chases (purchases)

he sole it to the wholesaler (sold)

My niece works till 11 or 12 [pm] and she gets 6 months' bonus. *gasps* Is that a measure of welfare?

[On family] The Italians - very close knit. The Italian Mafia - very close knit.

[On the CPI] The MTI economies are trying to come up with it, but my colleagues are complaining that their methodology is flawed.

If you are transisting to a knowledge-based economy (transiting)

This is particularly [important] in the United States, which is a welfare state (?! - a welfare state?)

Socrates always frames his questions so they don't have answers.

The reading only do this: spoil my eyes (did)

[On the writing module] This module can kill my 3 other modules

moral lerty (morality)

These are the killers, all the other readings are child's play compared to these... This will get your mind in a taffy, which is not my intention. I know now you think it is: he just wants to mess with our minds.

[On balance] I don't want you to say: therefore everything is equal and there's nothing to say. If you have nothing to say, don't write the essay.

When you write your essays you get lost in abstractions supported by abstractions supported by more abstractions.

[Some guy to some girl] Fuck you. No, I won't fuck you, you're a prude.

[On science girls] Science is full of 'floaters'... They float from place to place. They like to wear extremely baggy clothes. They look as if they are floating around.

[On my not-so-secret hair fantasy] Why don't you just shave your hair and wear a wig?

[Me: Shrill, Anorexic, Chinese-Speaking Ah Lians] Arts is full of them. *gets frosty looks from the 2 Arts girls beside him* Non-USP arts girls.

[Me on science floaters: Their primary prerogative is not to look good] Did you just use the word 'prerogative' when talking to me?... Never mind. I should talk more to you, then I'll become smarter. [Me: I've been told that before. Oh but you may also become more annoying.] You're annoying. [Me: Thank you.]

There's a huge difference between the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Science. At 9 o'clock, the Faculty of Science is bustling. At 9 o'clock, the Faculty of Arts is sleepy. [Student: No one's awake].

[Counting students] 3, 6, 9. Looks like I've to get better video clips to get you to attend.

[On sexual selection] There's selection in humans too, but we better not go into that.

Today's going to be a lot of [video] clips [Students: Yay! *laughs*] (Today there's)

[On moorhens] They're scratching like girls

[On paternity testing] 10 to 35 percent of the offspring are not sired by the father. That's in all socities. Not just decadent Western Societies... highest [rate was] in England.

Females tend to fantasise about other males at the time of ovulation... At the time of ovulation they prefer males with more angular features. When they are not ovulating, they prefer males with more feminine features.

Lung term partnership (long)

[On diopsids - flies, which he likes] I have to show at least some fly videos

[On mate choice in humans] Male terns: Instead of fish you give diamonds. [Professor: Not very healthy to eat] (Male terns give fish, humans)

[On female and male mate choice in humans] I personally think it's genetically determined... but most of you think it's a social construct.

Males with symmetrical ears run faster than males with asymmetrical ears. No, it's not because of aerodynamics.

[On beauty vs wealth in determining male attractiveness] Ugly but fabulously wealthy - can work. Just look at Donald Trump.

[On babies liking symmetrical female faces] Horny baby.

[Someone with only one earring in one ear on symmetrical faces] Now I know why babies like me. [Me: Then you should put one earring in each ear - symmetrical]

When you're invited to a party you only talk to certain people. You don't talk to the others. [Student: Like him - {he's} laughing.] Let's be realistic here.

Copulation in many animals is not a very big affiar. Swallows - they fly around. *claps hands* That was it.

It's a weird discman. It works better when spoilt.

The British are very statistical people... They have statistics in their blood.

[On Karl Pearson] He wrote so much that people during his time dind't know what he wrote.

I'll read you a short grandfather story... Listen, listen: this is the only time I'm gonna read a grandfather story in this course.

Have you been to the sixth storey of the Economics department? It is the only department in this faculty with photos of economists... after the lecture please make a beeline there (Why would the sociology department have photos of economists?!)

This is like throwing a dard at a board (dart)

[On an unbiased estimator] This could be a dart thrower who is really cock-eyed, or something like that.